ALASKA YUKON PACIFIC EXPOSITION (AYP)

The AYP is upon us – its Centennial. “As time allows” Jean and I will use moments early in its next 100 years to fill its very own “button” on this site with images and stories collected and written over the past 30 years – many of them from Pacific Northwest Magazine, but not all. Perhaps Berangere may also contributed something – architecturally or ceremonially similar – from Paris, the “City of Fairs.” Here we begin with the Expo’s charming litho-birdseye, which because it was painted and published while the AYP was still under construction is not always faithful to what was actually fabricated (although it usually is) for what is rightfully called “Seattle’s First Worlds Fair.” Much more to come. Note the artist’s creative rendering of Capitol Hill below the expo’s popular airship, and the Latona Bridge, far right, that carried most visitors from the city to the expo. And that is the surviving Denny Hall bottom right. Except for a very few other structures everything else in this “white city” was temporary – like an oversized model train set made from enchanted wood and plaster.